What disparity is there between defendants outcomes when you retain a Essay

What disparity is there between defendants outcomes when you retain a private attorney versus a public defender in a criminal trial - Essay Example While the presiding judge’s job is to ensure that the prosecution presents the case in a manner which is consistent with the law he is under no duty to ensure that council for either side is competent. As a result representation of a defendant at trial is very important if the defendant is going to benefit from a trial of the issues. It is important to remember that not all criminal trials involve jurors and not all parts of a jury trial require the jurors to remain a part of the proceedings. In Powell v Alabama Justice Sutherland explained the absolute requirement for legal representation at a criminal trial. He said that ‘the right to be heard would be, in many cases, of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel. Even the intelligent and educated layman has small and sometimes no skill in the science of law. If charged with crimes, he is incapable, generally, of determining for himself whether the indictment is good or bad. He is unfamiliar with the rules of evidence. Left without the aid of counsel he may be put on trial without a proper charge, and convicted upon incompetent evidence, or evidence irrelevant to the issue or otherwise inadmissible. He lacks both the skill and knowledge adequately to prepare his defense, even though he have a perfect one. He requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step in the proceedings against him. Without it, though he be not guilty, he faces the danger of conviction because he does not know h ow to establish his innocence.’ (Powell v Alabama 287 U.S. 45 (1932)) In delivering the judgment for the court, Justice Sutherland went on to explain that in the event a defendant is charged with a capital offense and could not afford to retain council the court had a residual duty to appoint council for the defendant. Failing to appoint council was tantamount to a denial of the right to due process of law under the fourteenth Amendment to the

Diplomacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Diplomacy - Essay Example First of all let us try to define what is diplomacy. This term is very often mixed with the term 'foreign policies'. The difference between the two terms was well summarized by Watson (1982, p.10), who points out that "while foreign policy is the substance of a state's relations with other states and agencies and the goals it strives to achieve by those relations", diplomacy is "the process of dialogue and negotiation by which states in a system conduct their relations and pursue their purposes by means short of war." As observed by Berridge (1995, p.1), "diplomacy as a professional activity is regulated by custom and by law. These two conditions are central to the emergence and maintenance of the transnationally distributed diplomatic logic of appropriateness: general respect for the common set of legal rules and routines delineating diplomacy as a practice anchored in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Conduct (1961) and the recruitment and socialization processes at foreign minis tries socializing diplomats into the dual role of promoting national interests in ways conforming to the transnationally accepted diplomatic norms and procedures". According to Der Derian (1987, p. 111), "what uniquely characterizes the paradigm of diplomacy is its utility for states in balancing the forces of hegemony and anarchy. In other words, diplomacy emerges as the collective and reflexive embodiment of the states' ultimate task - self-preservation in an alien environment". But it is generally known that there is no future without history. Diplomacy has a long history of adaptation and change (Hocking 1999, 2001: Melissen, 1999). That is why there is no doubt that it is time to do some hard thinking in regard to the analysis of the historical experience of diplomatic relations. The evolution of the foreign service is traced in detail in: M.S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450-1919 (London, 1993).Diplomatic law is an area of international law that is a summation of norms, which govern the status and functions of state organs of foreign affairs. For a long period of time diplomatic law has been based on custom. The first attempt to conduct partial official codification of diplomatic law has been made in Latin America. On the 20th of February 1928 it has been established "Havana Convention of 1927, which under the heading "Duties of Diplomatic Officers" stated that these officers must not interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving state and must confine their relations to the foreign ministry of the host state" (Robersts, 2006). Nowadays diplomatic law is mainly codified.The most significant document in the area of diplomatic relations is undoubtedly Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.The establishment of diplomatic relations involves the interchange of diplomatic missions. Such an interchange becomes possible only in appropriate legal and political